Five years after its inception, Saudi Arabia’s recently concluded Mdlbeast Soundstorm Music Festival put the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, on the map when it comes to live events in the Middle East.

This year’s edition of Soundstorm from December 12 to 14 – which started in 2019 as an Electronic Dance Music Festival – featured over 200 international artists from rap, rock, pop and house music.

This year it was stronger than ever thanks to top artists like Eminem, Linkin Park and rock bands like Thirty Seconds to Mars and Muse, as well as hip-hop stars like Russ, G-Eazy, JID and Busta Rhymes.

They were joined by Lebanese artist Elissa, Syrian singer Nassif Zeytoun and Saudi DJ and producer Cosmicat.

Mdlbeast CEO Ramadan Alharatani in an interview with Variety mentioned Eminem, who, in his first appearance in Saudi Arabia, performed his hit “Love The Way You Lie” for more than 100,000 fans.